Gandhi urges non-violent protest

Arun Gandhi met Palestinian president Yasser Arafat

Arun Gandhi, grandson of former Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, has urged Palestinians to use peaceful means to resist the Israeli occupation.

"Insist on your rights and demand your freedom peacefully," Mr Gandhi told Palestinians at a rally in Ramallah.

He is also set to observe a one day fast in support of Palestinian prisoners currently on hunger strike in Israeli jails.

The liquids-only strike by some 4,000 prisoners is now in its 12th day.

After meeting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Mr Gandhi told a crowd of flag-waving Palestinians: "I know your day of freedom is near."

When we just react to Israeli violence with violence, militant groups gain control of the resistance Terry Boulata Palestinian schoolteacher Gandhi's non-violence message

Mr Ghandi's non-violent message brought a mixed response from watching Palestinians.

"The peaceful resistance he talks about is better than what we have here," Mohammed Saber told Reuters news agency.

"It won't work, armed resistance is more important," said Mahmoud Sulieman.

'Choking'

The head of the MK Gandhi Institute for Non-Violence is visiting the region to promote the idea of peaceful resistance.

Mr Gandhi has also spoken out against the controverisial barrier Israel is building in the West Bank.

"This reminds me of something you might see in apartheid South Africa. The walls surround cities and towns, choking the people - it's not right," he told BBC News Online.

Israel says the barrier is necessary to stop attacks by Palestinian militants.

He is set to meet Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei and visit the Israeli memorial to the holocaust, Yad Veshem.

Mr Gandhi has also announced his support for a new Palestinian group which will adopt the strategy of non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation.

The Palestinian Campaign for Freedom and Peace hopes to spark a popular protest movement along the lines of the 1987-93 intifada.

Protests then took the form of civil disobedience, general strikes, boycotts on Israeli products, graffiti, and barricades.

New resistence

Terry Boulata, a schoolteacher from Abu Dis and member of the new group, told BBC News Online: "The means of resistance is the change. We want to increase participation in the struggle.

"When we just react to Israeli violence with violence, militant groups gain control of the resistance.

"We hope Gandhi's message of non-violence will create new ways of resisting the occupation."

Meanwhile, Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons have reportedly appealed for intervention by the UN and human rights organisations to prevent their hunger strike developing into a "humanitaran disaster".

A spokesman for prisoners at a military-run detention center in the southern Negev desert made the appeal to the AFP news agency by telephone.

"We ask you to assume the legal and ethical responsability by taking a quick and effective action to prevent a humanitarian disaster," his statement said.

The prisoners are campaigning for better conditions, but they have been rebuffed by Israel.